As you probably know the makers of Age of Empires and Halo Wars has been dissolved after, along with Endwar making their great contribution to the growing console RTS genre. I was wondering if anyone knew if the new studio replacing it will take on Age of Empires or whether it would be dropped and made open source. Answers appreciated.

 

What happened to Ensemble is a fucking shame. It kind of serves to highlight that Microsoft doesn't really give two shits about PC gamers. That the creators of Age of Empires had to go out with Halo Wars (Shit) is a travesty.

Regarding your question Black Mage, from what I understood Microsoft rehired some of the staff at Ensemble to integrate them into some of their other in-house developer teams. The majority of ex-Ensemble people however have gone off to form their own studio. Microsoft does still hold the Age of Empires license, so the new studio won't be able to make any more Age of games. As to whether Microsoft will get anyone to start working on a AoE IV... Who knows?

 

Damn, to have your game teken from you like that... anyway thanx magus, I'm sure someone at microsoft is already working on it.

 

Reads Magus' post *facepalms*.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into your phrasing but you're an idiot if you think that Microsoft has an attitude either way. Microsoft is out to make money, if Ensemble isn't making money (or isn't making enough money) then there is no point running the damn thing.

They will do a cost/benefit analysis and think whether or not they'll make a greater profit by funding developments into X-Box games or into PC games. Obviously Microsoft has other projects which have higher priorities.

You don't run a games developer for posterity's sake that's just bad business, you run a a games developer to make the big bucks. If they don't well then the same thing happens to them as happens to any other business (except American car companies), they get shut down.

 

You're completely forgetting about the people who get the shit end of the stick.And I never said it wasn't practical, or business minded I said it was harsh (notice the lack of the word unfair). No offence but there are always people like you who condone sweatshops and slave labour, because it's profitable, just because Microsoft want to make money doesn't mean they should buy out someones hard work.Business should never be allowed to overcome our basic humanity, or we have Enrons and the Iraqi War and worst of all, live action anime remakes.

 

Microsoft have owned Ensemble since 2001. It was under Microsoft they produced and released AoE 3. How does that translate to buying out their hard-work?

And harsh on whom? Those people who have worked in Ensemble? They have either gone to work with new parts of Microsoft or joined up with Robot Entertainment. I usually look forward to when a stagnant major games developer breaks up because it allows for brighter and better ideas to come in and be developed.

Perhaps now AoE4 will be made by Robot Entertainment (under license from Microsoft)? Perhaps Microsoft will make it with some of the same people they kept on from Ensemble? Ensemble didn't seem to be doing anything about it, maybe that was Microsoft pushing Halo Wars. Maybe this will turn out for the better?

You seem to be lamenting Ensemble's dissolution because it was a great games developer at one point. Rather than lamenting it, celebrate it for allowing something new to emerge, which might actually make the game we all want (AoE4 but titled differently so that Microsoft doesn't get no monies).

 

I like how this went from "oh, harsh guy, thay took ure games" to "Work faster, biches or I kill ure dog!"

 

Actually, If I recall correctly, it was more of a business decision on Ensembles part. They found that Ensemble was getting too big so they finished Halo Wars and then formed a new company. They're still owned by Microsoft and they'll be making DLC and patches for Halo Wars while working on their own new game.

Though, I'm not sure if they own Age of Empires anymore.

I'll see if I can find the related links...

EDIT: Found the link.

But I was wrong on one thing Microsoft did take down Ensemble but the reason is still the same. It was just too big to be profitable. Nevertheless, it's still has the important people of Ensemble Studios.